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Posts Tagged ‘Things We Love’

Things We Love 7/22

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Debbie lovesThe Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews – It is a great, easy read that discusses the seven decisions that determine personal success. The narrator has lost his job and is at his wit’s end. In a nod to Dickens’ Christmas Carol, the author takes his narrator on a fascinating odyssey through time to visit seven famous people who have encountered significant obstacles in their lives. People like President Truman. Christopher Columbus and Anne Frank. I thought it was particularly apropos for these difficult economic times. If you need a pick-me-up, give it a read. You will look at life a little differently when you’re through.

Nathan loves TweetLater’s Reply / Keyword Digest – TweetLater’s digest allows me to easily quantify at the end of the day and the month just how many replies and retweets we received for our social media metrics.

Susan loves “Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far” – This artful masterpiece masquerading as a book by Stefan Sagmeister is one of the coolest I have ever seen. Humorous sayings from the author’s diary have been transformed into typographical works of art that graced billboards in France and sign-toting inflatable moneys in Scotland. The front cover is laser cut to reveal different patterns on the author’s face depending on which section of the book is on top. Make sure you check out the video for a demonstration!

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Things We Love 7/15

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

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Debbie loves the Huddle House 45th anniversary promotion – I saw this promotion Fox & Friends on Wednesday, July 15: Huddle House created an outdoor diner just outside the Fox Studios, complete the counter, stools and full kitchen. The HH staff prepared free breakfasts for New Yorkers and gave out free T-shirts and other swag. The Fox & Friends cast talked about Huddle House repeatedly during their morning broadcast and the Huddle House CEO was on hand for a live interview. Fox & Friends even used the outdoor diner as a mini-set, conducting interviews with other morning show guests from the diner barstools. I have never eaten at a Huddle House, but now I’m motivated to give it a try. Those omelets looked tasty!

Jennifer loves Taylor Cuisine, Cafe and Catering – An article in the recent issue of Wilma magazine reminded me of this amazing little cafe located in the heart of Southport. I was introduced to Taylor’s a couple of years ago while working on a project in that area. The cafe offers cozy seating both indoors and outdoors, and this is one of those fun establishments where the chef mingles with the customers. Upon my first visit, I had a hard time deciding what to order between the selections on the menu and the daily specials board. I went with the highly recommended fried chicken salad. This is not your everyday salad. The best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted was served over a bed of fresh greens and sprinkled with candied pecans.  It was outstanding.  All this Talk about Taylor’s is making me hungry.  I think it’s time to plan a visit to Southport!

Nathan loves the Inside Facebook blog – It’s probably the best blog for keeping up on what’s going on specifically to Facebook, new, innovative ways people are using it, and where the next trend on Facebook will be.

Shawn loves blogs on logo design – Recently I have been inundated with logo design projects with several more looming on the horizon. As many designers would agree, logos are one of the hardest projects of all. In fact, I use to whine, cry and procrastinate but that has, fortunately, gone by the wayside. Not because logos are any easier. I’ve just worked on so many that the process has become quite familiar and a lot less stressful. Ten common mistakes in logo design is a great quick read to make sure you and your logo designs are on track. I think the only mistake I may be a little tiny bit guilty of is #7.

Susan loves Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince – As an avid reader and writer, I’m always fascinated to see how books are translated into movies. And as a huge Harry Potter fan, I could not wait for the latest Potter installment that premiered at 12:01 this morning. Despite having to be at the office at 8:30 a.m., I was sitting excitedly in the theater from 10:30 last night to 2:45 this morning surrounded by other fanatics who adore the Harry Potter brand as much as I do.  A lot of companies could look to the publishers and Warner Bros. for a lesson in how to keep their brands invigorated and keep their audiences singing their praises.

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Things We Love 7/8

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Debbie loves Forrester Research. Forrester Research is an independent research company that provides great, practical advice on a wide range of business and marketing issues.  Forrester focuses on the business implications of technology change. They have hundreds of analysts and coverage areas and offer lots off information online at no cost. What have you got to lose? Check it out at www.forrester.com.

Jennifer loves Lifehacker.com.  It’s not as gruesome as it sounds.  If you’re constantly looking for time-savers and cost-savers like me, you’ll definitely want to check out this site.  The homepage dubs Lifehacker as the place for “Tips and Downloads for Getting Things Done”.  You’ll find quite a variety of both tips and downloads.  They share everything from Do It Yourself projects, recycling ideas for old electronics, gadgets and affordable home makeover ideas to recipes, homemade cleaners and performance tests.  My current favorite is the use of rain gutters mounted under a desk to keep cables and wires off the floor and out of your way.

Nathan loves iPhone 3.0. To be more specific, I love the fact that the 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system allows me to have a landscape keyboard in all the major applications (e-mail, text, notes, and so forth). It makes the keyboard on my iphone actually usable, which is awesome.

Susan loves the Tubey Awards – I tend to fall for TV shows that are desperately loved by a small, but hardcore group of fans. So when I see an awards show that lets me vote for my favorites, I get super excited. Television Without Pity has teamed up with TV Guide to give the people the Tubey Awards. This way my favorites like Chuck and Ned from Pushing Daisies and the new show Castle might get some much-deserved love. Go vote now!

Brittany loves mint.com – This free website uploads all of the data from your checking & savings accounts, student loans, credit cards, etc. to give you a complete picture of your financial situation. Setting up an account only takes 5 or 10 minutes and there is no tedious data entry required. Mint makes it impossibly easy to track your spending habits and set a budget. Mint will show you how much other people typically spend in different categories to help you identify where you can cut back and will give you tips on how to save money. You can even have reminders sent to you by phone or email when you are over your budget. Mint will also help protect you from fraudulent charges and identity theft by alerting you of suspicious activity on your account.

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Things We Love 6/24

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

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Debbie loves www.wordfinds.net – A free application on this site allows you to create a custom word finder puzzle. I created one for our Sayce family reunion that featured words from our family folklore. Just put in the words you want included, hit submit, and voila, you have a word finder puzzle. The Sayce word finder generated a lot of discussion because the in-laws and children didn’t know the meaning behind many of the words. A custom word finder is also a great way to enliven your company newsletter or an event invitation too. Give it a try. It’s fun!

Jennifer loves Home Depot –  I recently paid a visit to our local Home Depot for some items we needed at the office.  Two special sized light bulbs were on my list, and as I entered the store, I faced an entire aisle of light bulbs.  Lucky for me, a helpful employee approached me to ask if I needed help.  I took him up on the offer, and he had me in and out of that section in no time.  Next on my list was a step ladder.  As I wandered around the tools section with a bewildered look upon my face, yet another helpful employee approached me to offer assistance.  I was shown some different options, as well as the highlights of each.  I made my selection, and was on my way back to work in record time.  If only we were greeted with such great customer service everywhere we go!

Nathan loves Facebook Vanity URLs – I was pretty boring with mine, just using Nathan Snell, but it’s great to have a convenient way to link to my profile now versus having to remember my profile ID number like before. Although one downside of the vanity system was you had to have a vanity url over 4 letters. While there are obvious reasons behind this, it prevented some good ones like wine, or cool, and so forth. Never the less. I love the new Facebook Vanity URLs. My favorite so far has been default.aspx.

Susan loves Take Your Dog To Work Day – Though I don’t have a dog, National Take Your Dog To Work Day is always a fun time. For those of us who don’t have or don’t plan on having kids it’s a great way to celebrate the “children” we do have. And having a pooch in the office always make the day a little more enjoyable. Too bad cats are such reclusive creatures or I’d start a Take your Cat To Work Day and force Chaucer and Pippin out of the house!

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Things We Love 6/17

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

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Jennifer loves Workamajig.  After years of working in an office with multiple calendars, imagine my delight when I began working at Talk and was introduced to Workamajig.  Now, I have access to all employee calendars, and can schedule meetings with a few simple keystrokes.  No more double bookings or meeting overlaps.  I’ve also enjoyed a single database for all client, vendor and contact information.  With a simple click, we can add a contact or business to a mailing or email blast list.  And, did I mention Workamajig also handles our invoicing, purchase orders, time sheets, bank account reconciliations, and reports galore?  Workamajig is truly the best software I’ve ever used.

Nathan loves TweetDeck for iPhone. I’ve been using TweetDeck for my Mac/PC for a while now and love it. But I’ve never been overly fond of the iPhone Twitter apps available, especially when having to pay for them (the quality just wasn’t worth it in my opinion). However, TweetDeck for iPhone is downright sexy. Not only does it allow you to have a TD (TweetDeck) account, enabling the syncing of your TD application between your iPhone and your computer, it gives you all the same functionality as TweetDeck Desktop, wrapped up nicely in a super slick interface. My only complaints are if you’re not connected to WiFi or on 3G (some of us unfortunately are not) it gives you an annoying popup notification about low connectivity every time you open the application. I also find opening links via TweetDeck a little agitating. All in all, if you have an iPhone and you’re on Twitter you have to check out TweetDeck for the iPhone (especially because it’s free).

Shawn loves Photoshop Magnets – I rarely run across something online and say “Wow, I really wish I had that.” That is until I saw these clever refrigerator magnets that look like the windows in Adobe Photoshop. They are from an online store that caters to artists and designers with unique design products ranging from coasters, doormats and magnets to lamp shades and hard drive cases.

Susan loves SquareSpace’s iPhone giveaway – The website software company, SquareSpace, is running a “30 iPhones in 30 days” promotion on Twitter to build their brand awareness. It’s easy to enter, just tweet using the hashtag #squarespace. One winner will be randomly selected each day around 5:00 p.m. And so as to not gyp the winner with an “old” model since the new iPhone streets soon, SquareSpace will be giving gift certificates instead of the phones. I so want to win one!

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Things We Love 6/10

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

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Debbie loves GotoWebinar – It’s an excellent services that allows Talk to host online webinars and conference calls for participants anywhere around the world. Talk is hosting free monthly webinars on marketing topics and we researched a variety of online webinar services before selecting GotoWebinar. We pay a monthly fee of $99, which is a bargain for the functionality it buys. We can host up to 1,000 attendees at each webinar. Participants register online and several reminder emails are sent prior to the webinar. Participation is easy - just dial in and turn on your computer. An extra plus is GotoWebinar’s survey capabilities. Following each webinar, we can automatically distribute a follow-up survey to attendees to gauge the effectiveness of our presentation. We used to GotoMeeting conference call function twice last week, which is convenient when clients and vendors are scattered across the country. Check it out at www.gotowebinar.com.

Brittany loves freerice.com – I’ll admit it… I’m a procrastinator. Sometimes I need to take 20 minutes to do something random before I can refocus and get things done. Now I use FreeRice as my procrastination tool because it helps me brush up on subjects like English vocabulary, geography and foreign language. Not only will you have fun learning, but your participation translates to rice being donated to feed the hungry. FreeRice is a committed to the cause of ending hunger around the work. All of the money raised by FreeRice goes to the UN World Food Program.

Jennifer loves iGoogle –  I recently set up an iGoogle account both at Talk and at home for the first time.  How fun!  I’ve got “gadgets” set up for the necessary things like news and finance.  But, I’ve also got gadgets for fun items like lightning strike photos, my horoscope and quote of the day.  The background themes are pretty cool too. My favorites are Summer Ocean and Island Getaway.  Whatever your interests, there are themes and gadgets for everyone.  I’ve even got a Google Reader to help me keep up with the headlines as they happen.

Nathan loves the Tree Style Tab add-on for Firefox 3.0 – I don’t know about you all, but I am a big tab junky. I am always working on a lot and am needing to multi-task, so Tree Style Tab is the perfect way for me to easily look through all of the different websites I have open. It allows me to put a list of all the tabs (websites) I have open vertically or horizontally (I have them listed in a right-hand pane and vertically). In addition, Tree Style Tab allows me to have hierarchical tabs, which means easy grouping for similar sites. So if I am developing a website, I can have all the test pages for that site in one simple to view area as opposed to having to search around for where that pesky tab might be. If you’re like me and happen to be tab happy, averaging about 30 tabs open at any one time, I highly recommend checking out Tree Style Tab (it works wonders in conjunction with Tab Mix Plus)!

Shawn loves Paper Art, yet again – Check out this truly remarkable gallery of Paper Art. Some of them are clever and funny, while others will leave you saying…. “how did they do that.”  As a designer I am always trying to look at something from a new angle or tackle it with a new approach. This gallery shows that something as simple as a sheet of paper has endless possibilities.

Susan loves sock puppets – The best thing about sock puppets is that they have instant personality. You can make them look fun, crazy, stupid, sweet, mad, etc. Whatever fits your advertising message. And who isn’t going to watch a commercial with a talking sock? It’s funny and instantly grabs your attention. Some of my all time favorite sock puppets are MTV’s one-time cult fave Sifl & Olly and the Pets.com turned 1-800-Bar-None spokesdog (and the one a friend and I made this past weekend).

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Things We Love 6/3

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

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Debbie loves “Web Design for ROI” by Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus – It’s a great easy read about how to design web sites that turn browsers into buyers and prospects into leads. Too many web sites are designed merely to look pretty. This book extols the virtues of making design decisions based on business goals and functionality.

Brittany loves Savannah, Georgia – Visit the Hostess City and you will immediately be taken in by its rich history and true Southern hospitality. In Savannah you can enjoy breathtaking architecture or the splendor of the city’s many squares, parks and mansions. Stop in The Pirate House, a tavern frequented by pirates who sailed the Caribbean in 1794, for a memorable dining experience. Savannah is also known as “America’s most haunted city,” so don’t miss out on one of the thrilling ghost tours. I’m sure you will fall in love with the city where I’m going to retire!

Jennifer loves PCDC – Progressive Child Development Center is my son’s daycare. You’ll never find a more caring group of daycare providers. The teachers are certified and professional, and the facility is safe and child-friendly. They will see your children through the steps from infant, to toddler, to pre-K, to after school care.  My son has loved every teacher he’s had, brings home creative artwork regularly, and looks forward to all new lessons and field trips. Working parents know that a quality daycare is priceless. For more information, visit www.progressivechild.com. I know I’m glad I did!

Nathan loves Hulu Desktop – I don’t know about anyone else, but I stopped paying for cable in lieu of being able to watch the shows that I want, for free, when I want to, on my computer (or streamed to my TV from my computer). Because of that, I was stoked when Hulu released their new Desktop application which makes watching the shows on Hulu an even smoother process (I always ran into a bug or two with their web streaming version). Now I’m just waiting for my favorite shows to start back up again (or if they got license rights to show TUF)

Shawn loves Personalwine.com – I recently had one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had in ages with Personalwine.com. Personal Wine is a company out of Austin that allows you to select your preferred wine, design custom labels using their templates or submit your own custom label. I chose the latter and ended up with a design I was quite happy with. Now it was time to upload the art but I had all the standard “graphic design” questions. What is the preferred file format? What size file will ensure the best quality? CMYK vs. RGB. Will I see a proof? After several failed attempts at uploading artwork or finding answers to my question I clicked on the “click for live chat” button. Voila! I had an instant message from an account manager named Blake. I asked a few questions, he answered them and then he did the unexpected, he said it would be much easier if he just called me. Ten seconds later he was on the phone. He suggested we bypass the website and I could just email him directly. He would take care of everything. I made a few adjustments to my file and sent the email while Blake stayed on the line. We chatted about Austin. He received the file, processed the order and somewhere in process complimented my design. What more could I ask for.

Susan loves pet toys with a sense of humor – I’m a huge cat person. And I have two huge cats. I, like all pet owners, want my cats to have everything they need to be happy. But it always makes me happy when I come across something like these “three de’cat’pitated heads are better than one” toys, which add a little spunk to playtime. I have a sick sense of humor and think my cats should too.

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Things We Love 5/27

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

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Debbie loves Three Cups of Tea – This book is about Greg Mortenson and his quest to build schools in remote villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Here, Mortenson discovers that business relationships proceed slowly and only after many cups of butter tea. Perhaps Talk should incorporate tea service into all our new client presentations.

Jennifer loves children –  This coming from a woman who didn’t realize she wanted to become a mother, until she became one.  Over the weekend, I tried to focus on my son’s way of thinking.  As a working mom, I often get caught up in the things that “need to be done” aka the laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, bill-paying, etc.  Instead, I went with my 3 1/2 year old’s idea of weekend plans.  This included watching his Spiderman movie, building a tower with Mega-Blocks, swimming in a 74 degree pool, replacing batteries in his remote control cars (again), breaking out the coloring books with new crayons, and going to the park (twice).  I must admit, it was a very pleasant weekend.  My goal now is to spend time in this mindset more often.  The next time I’m asked to play instead of washing the dishes, I’ll try not to hesitate in taking out the blocks!

Nathan loves the iPhone – I realize how geeky this will make me, but I love my iPhone because it kept me connected to the real world as I was on a men’s retreat this past weekend. The retreat entailed camping, fish, building fires, and all the other great stuff that happens while camping. I must say, I had lots of fun, but it was also nice to be able to text my fiance, respond to necessary e-mails, and read news off of my google reader through my iPhone. Oh, on a better note, it was also awesome to use one of the iPhone’s astronomy applications to find constellations. The iPhone is an awesome tool, no matter what you’re doing. As they say… there’s an app for that.

Susan loves the Best RAWR Contest – The hilarious website icanhascheezburger.com launched a promotion for the upcoming Will Ferrell movie, Land Of The Lost. While I’m not a Will Ferrell fan, I follow LOL cats on Twitter and have the website feed included in my iGoogle account for my daily cat humor. The contest asks people to submit photos of their cat giving its best roar face. So far, the submissions are hysterical.

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Things We Love 5/13

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

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Debbie loves Austin, Texas – I’m here visiting family and enjoying every moment. It is hip and happening and full of creative folks. And great food! The slogan for the city is “Keep Austin Weird.” I don’t think they’ll have any problem with that.

Jennifer loves Noggin.com – This week, I continue to be impressed with Noggin.com.  It was great to discover Noggin, the children’s television station, when our son was younger.  Noggin offers many great learning programs, which are short enough to keep a child’s attention.  Now that our son is a little older, he is able to play the interactive games on Noggin.com.  I must admit, we get quite a kick from watching our three and a half year old navigate the trackpad on our laptop!  And did I mention he has learned a little Spanish, and more recently, Chinese from the programs available on Noggin?

Kirsty loves the  Star News Redesign – It’s a challenging time for traditional media. With the advent of new media and with advertisers’ cutting back media buys in a recession, there’s never been a more critical time to think outside the box. So, this week I get to brag about our local, Wilmington-based Star News, of the New York Times Co. The debuted a redesign for the paper this week that was certainly more cost effective, but I think actually enhanced the overall paper. Couple that with reporters’ and editors’ engagement in social media and you have a newspaper that should be a case study for how to evolve the right way.

Susan loves the real “notebook” computer – This ingenious “invention” by Dutch art student Evelien Lohbeck showcases the wonders of video editing. The artist takes a basic journal and transforms it into a mini computer equipped with wifi, scanner and printer. Even though it’s all visual effects, it’s pretty darn amazing. Just think if your writing notebook could do all this too!

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